Historiography for educational leadership in mathematics: Content analysis of a 1904 K-8 mathematics series and the early 20th century context of its use

Math education is as important today as it was 100 years ago when the early 20th century was transforming from the old world into an era of factories, airplanes, atomic energy, and medical breakthroughs. Educational leaders of the era were wrestling with how long children should stay in school, meeting the diverse needs of an influx of immigrants, and providing a quality education for all students. Early 20th century schools educated the American workforce of The Great Depression and war era, helping to boost the U.S. into a world leader. Transition again marks the turn of the century with economic globalization and greater needs for a math-skilled labor force. Math education continues to be a challenge, and educational leaders along with economic, business, and political leaders are considering all components in driving improvement including mathematics textbooks for grades K-8.;To investigate potential new resources for educational leaders in shaping modern mathematics textbooks, the objective of this historiography was to examine the most popular U.S. grammar school mathematics textbook series in the early 1900's and to analyze the content and the historic context in which students used the text. The content of David Eugene Smith's 1904 math textbooks from grades 1-8 was analyzed using the TIMSS framework which identified number of topics, coherence or sequence of topics, level of repetition, and rigor as characterizing the math textbooks of the top 6 modern countries in student math achievement. The textbook analysis results revealed close alignment with the top 6 countries math texts in content; Grades 2-8 of DE Smith's texts passed all 4 criteria characterizing textbooks linked with high achievement. The historical analysis revealed social and cultural conditions in the early 1900's which were challenging for student learning, including: high levels of poverty and mortality rates, child labor practices, national economic instability, waves of immigrants, lesser qualified teachers with 4-5 year turnover, lower parent education, and ineffective compulsory attendance laws. With the content alignment of DE Smith's 1904 math textbooks to the top modern countries, and its use in challenging educational conditions, the study provides a potential new resource for educational leaders.